Lucky Star – 16

For those who have brought up the excessive use of Haruhi materials in Lucky Star – remember, KyoAni is always listening. As if a slap to the face for the naysayers and a divine gift for the fanboys (and girls… all four of them), episode 16 presents us with quite possibly the most blatant, the most complete, and definitely the most memorable of all Haruhi references. Read on if you dare… (or just look at those screenshots right above)

Konata kicks things off by showing off her new cell phone – its got one of those swiveling screens, which prominently displays her Haruhi wallpaper and has “Koi no Mikuru Densetsu” as her ringtone. Fast work – her priorities are indeed straight! Thing is, songs as ringtones rarely work out all that well, considering you pick up the call within a few seconds…

The next few minutes involve some random chatter about Miyuki and her mom, including a few flashbacks to little Miyuki – cute! Mom did quite a fine job raising Miyuki, but at times she can be a little lazy too. The conversation then shifts to talk about being a single child versus having siblings… after Miyuki shares her side of the story, we switch over to the Hiiragi family, where Tsukasa is yapping away about something Konata did, while everybody else is eating all the meat in the sukiyaki -_-

Back to some more Miyuki tidbits, where we find out her incredible concentration makes her neglect some of the most basic of things… such as opening the door before walking in a room, or remembering to get her drink from the microwave. Konata then asks her when she started wearing glasses – turns out it was some time during elementary school, when her mom used to read to her before going to sleep… but Miyuki would keep staying up reading under the flashlight after her mom fell asleep.

I’d say that’s the reason I started wearing glasses too, but I’m not a walking moe like Miyuki so it lacks any sort of impact.

Well, ok – that was interesting to talk about and cute and all, but let’s get to the real meat of this episode. It’s Konata’s one year anniversary working at the cosplay café – Kagami jokes that she’s going to go visit, but Konata happily invites her.

(Has it been a whole year already? I’m guessing their graduation will be one of the last episodes then.)

Wasting no time, it’s time to go see Konata in action. As per Konata’s instructions, the 3 girls are to go to the manga store first and pick up some Lelou*** and Code Ge*ss materials. On the way, Tsukasa gets cornered by some otaku asking for photos – too bad street-savvy Kagami is there to bail her out.

Aaaand they finally find the café. At the door, they’re greeted by none other than Konata, sporting a full blown pre-haircut Haruhi costume, with the line “okaerinasai mase, goshujin-sama!” (welcome home, master) Ohhh boy, it begins. After sitting down, Kagami notices some suspicious characters at another table… it’s some dude that looks just like Kyon and a waitress that looks just like Yuki… and sound just like them too… and say the exact things (Yuki busts out the line from the video game episode).

Haruh…er… Konata comes back to take their order, except this time Hirano Aya is doing her aggressive Haruhi voice and telling them to hurry up and decide. “I have no interesting in ordinary menus!” “Danchou’s orders – wait right here!” Oh Aya, you make me feel all fuzzy inside.

Konata comes out once again and tells them to check out her stage performance. Yeap, you knew this was coming… it’s Hare Hare Yukai the Lucky Star cosplay version. Konata has those dance steps DOWN! Miyuki and Tsukasa cheer her on, while Kagami remains as disgusted and horrified as always, especially seeing that the other customers (Kyon included) have gotten up to do the dance themselves…

The first twenty times I watched this scene I was totally into it, but after that I started sympathizing with Kagami… yea, it would be pretty goosebump-inducing to be in that room. Whew.

Afterwards, Konata introduces the Mikuru-cosplayer, a transfer freshman from their school named Patricia Martin. Her voice is damn cute! The following conversation goes something like this:

The rest of the episode included a sighting from Yutaka and her friend after the physical exam (she didn’t get any taller), another episode of Legendary Girl A usurping anime tenchou’s (and this time also generic Kyon store clerk), a scene from the girls’ home ec class, a study session between Kagami and her two classmates, and some failed English translation attempts by the two Hiiragi onee-sans.

Lucky Channel 16: Yes indeed, it’s time for the Kogami Akira live event! …Which turns out to be a sign on the wall of a karaoke box. Ah, nothing short of my expectations. Needless to say, Akira isn’t too happy, but she takes what she can get and sings anyways. It’s one of those forlorn enka songs, and she looks absolutely hilarious with all her facial expressions.

Akira ED

ED: 「三十路岬」 (Misoji Misaki) by 今野宏美 (Konno Hiromi)

Akira’s seiyuu continues to sing the same song, and it sounds pretty legit for most of the way… until she starts grinding her voice like a pissed off bipolar idol. lol.

Preview

Man oh man, where do I begin. Remember how I said before that Lucky Star seemed to be alternating between episodes where they just talk, and episodes where something happens? It seems like that’s been redone in a condensed form, where half the episode has talking parts and the other half involves the girls going somewhere or doing something.

That’s all fine and dandy, but how do we address the recent explosion of Haruhi references in Lucky Star? I’ve always held my ground on the point that Lucky Star is able to tackle several different sources of humor – one of them being reference-based, and juggle them around masterfully. It’s just that the majority of the referential humor is easy to pick up on relative to the other humor (you know, where you actually have to watch the episode to get it), thereby giving Lucky Star detractors the false impression that all the humor is as a result of Keroro, Haruhi, or Da Capo. Recent Haruhi references have tipped the scales a bit, but let’s not forget, the concert scene of episode 15 was less than a minute, and the cosplay café deal in this episode wasn’t even three minutes. The rest of the episode? Honest to goodness Lucky Star exclusive fun.

Quite simply, these references give the doubters something to point the finger at, because it is the easiest source of humor to identify. Remember the early criticism before the Haruhi explosion? “It’s not funny.” Well, it was never intended to be the slapstick humor you would find in the likes of Seto no Hanayome or Moetan, but rather a sheer amusement and sense of fun when you hang out with friends that are completely on the same page as you. We see this in Lucky Star every time a new character is introduced – there’s no need for an adjustment period, they jump right in and feel completely natural. It’s the kind of humor that takes time to get used to, but also the kind one doesn’t just laugh at and forgets – but cherishes as the weeks go on.

If there’s anything people should be saying about the references, it’s how well done they are – from the Initial D bit to the Haruhi performances, or even that little nyoro~n bit, KyoAni has shown the lengths they are willing to go to please their audience – a large population of them being the otaku population who titillate at every mention of some extra-curricular material.

After all, what’s the point of a comedy? To entertain its audience by making them laugh, or maybe just put a smile on their face. One thing Lucky Star excels at in particular is its ability to take everyday situations and overanalyze them to the point that we say “I’ve never really paid attention to it, but it’s SO TRUE!” It possesses an innate ability to make me appreciate these moments in my own life – which is a much deeper, more profound, and more purposeful sort of humor than anything I’ve really seen in anime.

for some reason konata’s hair seemed darker in the OP–i guess it’s because of the RAW i got. anyways~

-konata shows her nifty japanese-brand cell phone (DoCoMo, perhaps?) to kagami
-konata’s ring tone is “koi no mikuru densetsu.” oi. x.x
-random talk on how “chaku-utas” (actual songs used in place of a regular ringtone, popular in japan) never seem to reach the chorus by the time one answers his/her cell
-discussion on yukari (miyuki’s mom) and how she is a straightforwards person to understand
-conversation on siblings and being an only-child
-konata cheerfully mentions her “one-year anniversary) of her part time job at the cosplay cafe
-konata orders the other 3 girls to buy her compu and the *manga* version of code geass
-more haruhi references on the map to the cosplay cafe
-konata greets the other 3 @ the cosplay cafe as haruhi danchou, with the phrase “okaerinasai mase, goshujinsama!!” xD
-more haruhi ref. madness in the cosplay cafe (kagami is clearly horrified). those annoyed with the haruhi references, beware! xD
-the items offered at the “legendary girl A” segment were the character song CD’s of itsuki and kyon x.x
-misao’s (kagami’s brown-haired classmate) future dream plans is to win the lottery and have it “easy”
-kagami compares her two classmates (ayano and misao) to be somewhat similar to tsukasa and konata
-horrible translations of english passages courtesy of tsukasa’s two older sisters

-lucky channel segment was hilarious, with akira singing enka songs (it was surprisingly to see akira sing seriously)!
-minoru plans to sing one of kyon’s character songs…
-ED: same song akira sang, by akira’s VA

Anoo…. Now they are cosplaying as Haruhi’s characters. This is starting to get a little scary now. I loved the show, but if I wanted to see this much, I’d just go back and watch it. I know Haruhi was popular, but I know people who didn’t even see the show, so this is definitely going to be difficult for them to follow. The inside jokes were a bit much in this episode.

Told everybody it was going to continue to get worse, before it got better. Kyoani loves their fanboys more than anybody and they take top priority cause they give them the most money. As such I’ve come up with new names to describe Lucky Star. They are Lucky Staruhi, Haruhi Gaiden, or The Melancholy of Haruhi Konata. If you aren’t a Hard Core Haruhi fan it might be time to get off this show as it’s looking wreckish in terms of variety of material.

kaioshin sama pretty much have it right considering the decision to “milk out” the haruhi references for the fanbase. since this is shinya-anime (shown at midnight), lucky star is definitely not something the general demographic or even teens/young adults will really bother watching. combine that with the level of impact it has on the akihabara-otaku community, and the result is this.

im personally not too troubled by this, though, because lucky star is still better than a good chunk of anime that is currently airing ^^;

of course, both kyon and yuki’s seiyuu have other roles in lucky star, with kyon being the generic-looking anime clerk (he’s the guy in pic 21), and yuki’s seiyuu being the quiet, green haired girl in 18 and 19.

The cosplay order scene was amazing.
Aya switched seamlessly between the two voices and personalities.

@Kaioshin_Sama
Seriously hearing your comments and opinion is depressing… really; you sound like one annoying religious people that hands out pamphlet on my campus and trying “spread the word” when what they’re basically trying to force an opinion; and I’m myself a Christian and thats saying something about how annoying I find them. I don’t worship Haruhi or am as you call “Hard Core Haruhi fan” but I still manage to enjoy Lucky Star; and I don’t want to be rude or speaking out of place here but this a show, a entertainment, which is meant to be enjoyed; and if you’re not enjoying it keep your opinions to yourself so other people, like myself, can enjoy it.

I won’t say that this show is exactly genius or anything. It’s just lackadaisical thing to watch that’s all. And most of the actual jokes are so overused, it’s ridiculous. But other than that, the characters are cute and ‘moé’. I suppose that’s the reason why I’m still watching it.

Honestly, I don’t find the Haruhi references that annoying, I actually find it funny because KyoAni goes such lengths just to put references in, and the fact that they actually work, unlike other animes who reference other shows but is really obscure even to the most hardcore viewer. But then again, I practice Haruhi-ism.

But I have to agree with Luminisk, not every show WILL appeal to everybody, hell not everything will appeal to everybody.

In any case, another fine episode this week. Can’t wait for the subs, but I gotta say can we get moar Hinata plz?

I can understand how you may feel, but you should also understand that I feel the same way about Haruhist/Kyoanist types also preaching about the greatness of both. I know how you feel, believe me I’m experiencing it, but first you might want to consider how much I’ve been through, putting up with a year of Haruhi being thrown at me from every angle like an assault and much like a preached religion in itself.

@Haesslich:

Er, they did that about 2 episodes back, these guys don’t miss a beat. I would say the shows been plugged from every angle, but I don’t dare stand by that statement even now. Lucky Star has become a virtual sandbox for trying out new advertising schemes between the manga material, so there are probably many new angles to try.

Sorry for that little off-topic outburst, but I just finished a 37 page report for my class recently, as you can see from my usage of semi-colons, and I felt the need blow off steam… on animeblog for some reason. But okay you right to dislike something, not everything appeals to everyone, but to try and drag others down with you I just consider rude.

I’m delighted that you praised Patricia Martin’s voice: that’s the amazing and wonderful new seiyuu Sasaki Nozomi, who was Nanami in Bokura ga Ita. She left her job in an office after she was discovered at a random seiyuu workshop in Kobe by the director of Bokura (and Fruits Basket). The moe-est voice I’ve ever heard.

I loved all the Haruhi references. I thought they were done just right.

Lucky Star is by far the BEST anime of 2007! HANDS DOWN! It has both instant humor and thinking humor with a little slapstick thrown in there here and there to keep things lively. I don’t know many anime that can do that! Lucky Star You have my heart this season!…. Let’s just hope Bandai and Funimation don’t sink their filthy hands into you.

@Hudson
Whats the point of this? I never can understand why people act like american anime distro companies mess up animes. Don’t like the english dub? Well guess what? Almost 98% of all english dubs are absolute pure shit. You know what though? You can switch it to japanese with english subtitles. Now please go jump in a lake you waste of air moronic peck.

Well now, see as that scene DID take place in a cosplay cafe, you knew they were going to be cosplaying something, right? So, in order to complain about the Haruhi reference, it must somehow be bad in it of itself to use Haruhi as opposed to another show, would it not? If Konata were cosplaying, say, Rozen Maiden or Code Geass, would anyone honestly have any objections? If not, then why the negative outcry over a Haruhi reference in this particular scene, if it was appropriate under the circumstances?

I can understand why Kyoto Animation would feel that Haruhi is the best thing to refer to in such an instance. They would naturally want something that is already well-known by most of their audience, and that they can use liberally without worrying about licensing issues. What better reference material could they use? After all, how many people who regularly watch Lucky Star don’t know what Haruhi is, as opposed to anything else they could use? This is one of the most well-known and universal references they can make, which they can be sure their audience will understand. And when your main character is a blatantly obsessive otaku, your show must understandably have such references, preferably one that the vast majority of your audience can understand. Of course, references to other things are necessary as well, but the reason one in particular is used is to ensure a familiar “foundation” of sorts to unify the connection between the show and the audience.

What would be the alternative to using Haruhi? Whatever it is, it will likely alienate more members of the audience. After all, the Da Capo references from episode 15 totally went over my head, seeing as I’ve never seen the series before, and have no clue who those characters were.

Just have a question of curiousity here Jaalin. What do you mean by “doubters”? From what I gather that’s a bit of an assumption there that all those who think there are issues with Lucky Star are in some sort of out crowd that is inherently wrong. Would you be able to elaborate on what you mean by that term? Also I think some consideration could go into the fact that not everybody feels the references are well done or at all unpredictable either. I’ve called everything that has happened up until now and knew they were coming, so I’m not really surprised as much as I was waiting around for it to happen. Problem is these Haruhi references don’t seem to want to pass and they just keep going and going and the show gets more predictable with each passing episode. I generally only really laugh when I can’t figure out what’s coming next, but the Haruhi references so far have been pretty cut-and-dry. Nothing we haven’t seen before in terms of the Haruhi Dance, Sugita Tomokazu (Who’s in like every Kyoani production as some sort of universal rule) as Kyon, Chihara Minori, a beloved VA of Kyoani’s as Yuki meeting her pseudo-doppleganger and Konata/Aya Hirano pulling a Haruhi. I guess it can be blamed on the sheer number of Youtube videos I’ve seen trumpeting the above and I guess there really is no limit to how much Haruhi people can have anywhere though, which really honestly and truly surprises and confuses me to no end. I can’t figure out how this works. Why not be like Haruhi and seek out the less mundane and take interest only in the unpredictable aspects of the series? In that sense I have more in common with Haruhi then most hardcore fans of the show at this point, and I’m only a casual one at that. I almost can’t wait until the new material gets around in Season II and it’s not just the same things over and over with the Haruhi anime franchise. Anyway very long post so ending it now.

Lucky Star deserves it place and continue to roll, hope they change their parody preference as soon as possible.

Anime that are worthy favorites of all time…. (Sports/Action/Mecha/Horror not included)
01. Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
02. Full Metal Panic: Fumoffu
03. Lucky Star
04. Seto No Hanayome
05. School Rumble
06. Love Hina
07. Great Teacher Onizuka
08. Genshiken
09. Da Capo
10. Hayate No Gotoku
From the favorites
Kyo-Ani really rules……….big time
Female seiyu’s will battle it out this fall 2007
Da Capo II
Shakugan No Shana season 2
Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya season 2
Genshiken season 2
Code Geass season 2
or there would be a dark horse that I don’t know yet.
too bad School Rumble term 3 is still next year’s spring.

You can moan, cry and whine, but Kyoto Animation is not the first animated company to deviate from its original source. JC Staff did it with Excel Staff and NO one ever complained!
Can we just have fun watching KyoAni having fun in peace??

Stuck in southeast asia with no mean to watch anime, I am like Tantale and can only hope to come back earlier than planned.

I’m naturally not an argumentative person, so I’m incapable of writing a long post like you, so I’ll keep it brief. :D

I’m sure it can be agreed that we have fundamental differences regarding this show, so I’ll get straight to the point.

No disrespect, but if your questioning attitude to the show as evident by your question to jaalin isn’t being a “doubter”, then I don’t know what is. And please don’t tell me there are no doubters, you just have to look at the amount of “anti-LS threads” in Japan’s 2ch bbs (an indicator for Japan’s “otaku-dom”) to see that the show is just as controversial in Japan. (Though there are twice as many “pro-LS threads”. )

As jaalin has said, the Haruhi reference in this episode was only 3 minutes if you put into perspective. The majority of the episode (and of the show) is still sourced from the manga.

I’ll probably never convince you to ever like the show, and I’m not obliged to. No offense intended, though I respect your opinion, neither are you going to convince me to agree with you, no matter how long a counter-argument you write.

As the old saying goes, “A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still.” (Substitute “a man” with “a Kyo-Ani admirer”)

you know how in high school, there were all those different groups of friends? each one had their own interests, their own way of speaking, things they laughed at – lucky star is just like one of those. to really enjoy their company, you have to take the effort to be a part of them, or otherwise you’re just an outsider looking in, and seeing only the surface of what they have to offer. well, to “doubt” them from the outside, isn’t that just… immature?

Lucky Star is just aimed for a target audience, if it hasn’t been obvious from the first 15 episodes… It’s basically impossible for an anime to serve everyone’s needs, because everyone doesn’t have the same interests. How can you insult an anime for doing something you didn’t want it to do? There are so many times when I’ve seen animes and thought damn…why did they do that, but that didn’t make me go posting all over expressing my anger as if the whole fucking world revolved around me.

As Kaioshin_Sama said, KyoAni’s got their priorities right. I’m one big Haruhi fanboy, and this episode was a gift from the heaven, now I love the show even more. You bet I will be buying the DVDs when they get around here. I don’t usually buy R2s because they’re too expensive =(

Great episode! Seeing the characters from Haruhi drawn in Lucky Star’s style put a smile on my face. BTW, the otaku who takes Tsukasa’s picture and asks her to say “Hiroyuki” is Ishihara Tatsuya, the director of Haruhi! Bwahaha. Here’s his picture (he’s the third real person from the top):

They are just making a big commercial for Haruhi. It’s not even funny now with how blatant they have become. Do reference to Haruhi once…. twice… but when you go over the top you are only going to piss off all the people that are not blind kyoani fanboys.

The references are just overused and blatant advertisement…. if you want to make a good parody anime do like Gintama’s Death Note episode. That was a masterpice not this…. failed attempt at being a comedy.

“” Remember the early criticism before the Haruhi explosion? “It’s not funny.” “”

and sadly, a steaming heap of haruhi references is what kills the humour, frankly.
plenty funny on it’s own, plenty funny with one of two tiny jabs at other shows here and there… but drop a load of haruhi on anything and it goes down the tubes x_x

Oh, thanks Rin! I thought I had read “Patricia Martinez” (Martinez is a very typical spanish surname) and didn´t realize it was “Martin”! I also watched the episode, and there´s no doubt she pronounces her name with english accent.

I’d have been more impressed if Aya doing Kona doing Haruhi had been amateurish sounding (like a real cosplayer :) ).

I’m beginning to wonder where Lucky*Star is…. I wonder how many people will buy the manga thinking they’re going to get all these insertions and wonder where animate_tenchou, L*C, and the Haruhi refs went….

At least Akira’s voice actress got some live-action screen time, I was hoping for that.
Maybe we’ll get a live-action L*C skit before the series is over.

Like the blogger says, L*S is a charming little story made up of slice’o’life skits as a descendent of Azumanga Daioh’s vein of comedy. Thank the gods KyoAni wasn’t doing AzuDa and had the Haruhi craze take off….

I think KyoAni should give back their “true to the source” accolade at this point. I do like their L*S specific anime-only work (like the extended beach trip or parts of the temple sequence)… whatever…

Fans of L*S may end up getting trampled in pursuit of the Haruhi fan dollars. And if this crossover contamination sells, one might expect:
1) SHnY characters reading L*S manga and cosplaying as FMP characters
2) Clannad characters quoting SHnY with cameos or visiting AIR locations.
3) FMP characters doing the Hare Hare dance or L*S characters playing AIR music on their pianos. and so on….
So how much crossover before the line is crossed? And don’t say it won’t happen if the result sells big :)

“The references are just overused and blatant advertisement”
It’s not. It’s to entertain the otaku fanbase. It’s the style of Lucky Star/KyoAni. Konata will naturally have anime ringtones, wallpapers etc because she is an otaku. If they put another anime instead of Haruhi, wouldn’t that be grounds to complain about overuse of the replacement anime? Have u seen how many fan-made crossovers there are of Lucky Star and Haruhi? It’s fun. People like it and people want it.

hah, what if in MOSH 2 , Haruhi cosplays Konata, while she cosplaying Haruhi….. some kind of major paradox will open up and those monsters that appear when Haruhi is board will appear.. and my head hurts…good stuff!

The Haruhi references are turning into blatant advertising at this point. Honestly, they’re NOT THAT FUNNY. South Park will dedicate nearly an entire episode to some major pop culture reference, but they will PARODY it and make it hilarious. I don’t see that in Lucky Star. Part of the problem is Haruhi doesn’t lend itself to parody what-so-ever. It’s a nonsensical show with normal-looking characters. Dressing as them does nothing. Were Konata a Batman freak, seeing her simply dressed as Batgirl or whatever would *maybe* be funny enough on its own, but seeing her don a different-color school uniform and a Haruhi hairstyle? whoopteedo all I get from it is the writers got major freaking lazy.

Doesn’t help that Haruhi was a KyoAni production, making all the references feel like shameless plugs more than anything else.

People just don’t know how to appreciate something for what it is, no one is forcing anyone to watch(buy) anything, but if someone does keep on watching something they don’t like… aren’t they just wasting their time? Besides, the references doesn’t do anything to anyone, just imagine another anime/manga/something with whatever you’re not pleased with what they’re using then (next time? If people decide to watch Lucky Star and just say blaaaah ‘advertisement’ or such), like switch Haruhi with CC from Code Geass, see if it’ll have the same impact or feel to it? Either way, It’s just retarded to badmouth something you’re not forced to ‘enjoy’. My 2cents.